Chemical characterization of soils cultivated with rice in the municipality of Majagual, subregion of La Mojana, Sucre, Colombia.

Introduction-- The La Mojana subregion is related to natural wealth, made up of wetlands, the Cauca, Magdalena and San Jorge rivers, a unique ecosystem, conserving plant and animal species, of fragile habitat with importance for the environmental balance of the Caribbean and Colombia. The rice agroecosystem, the main engine of the agricultural economy, involves its own components that are indicators of sustainability and productivity, where the chemical properties of the soils constitute an important factor for the profitability of the rice company. Objective-- To carry out a chemical characterization of the mechanized rainfed rice soils of Majagual-Sucre, under two topographical conditions (low and high). Methodology-- 32 soil samples were taken and the following were evaluated-- pH, Organic Matter (OM), phosphorous and available cations, cation exchange capacity and microelements. Descriptive statistics, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Ward's minimum variance clusters were used. Results-- For both topographies, the pH was slightly acid, OM, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and boron low. In the high topography, a higher content of sulfur, iron, and zinc was recorded, and in the low topography, a higher concentration of calcium, magnesium, CIC, and manganese was recorded. PCA led to a reduction of the initial dimensions from 14 to 4, which accumulated the total explained variance of the extraction of the 4 components with 71.63%. Conclusions-- The concentrations of nutrients in the soils cultivated with rice in the La Mojana subregion were identified, which are a guide in the fertilization plans according to the topographic conditions of the plots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]